Litmus Test

A former PGA Tour player turned club pro once told me: "The game of golf is easy. It's the teachers who make it hard." And to a great extent, he was right. Just a glance at all the books, magazines and DVDs out there peddling one "secret" or another would be sufficient to intimidate most newcomers, and to confuse "average" golfers enough that it's amazing they can even get the ball airborne. So how should most mainstream players negotiate this world of unrelenting game-improvement hype?

Jews worry for a living. Their dark history and, in the case of American Jews, their legitimate concerns about the security of the state of Israel impel them to do so. But sometimes those concerns are overblown and reflect a kind of collective cosmic oy vey that gets in the way of sound and rational judgment. Such is the case in the matter of Chuck Hagel's nomination to be President Obama's next secretary of Defense. Some of the comments attributed to Hagel about lobbies, Israel and the like come from an interview he gave me for my last book about American Middle East policy, particularly his use of the term "Jewish lobby.

First, critics went after U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and unfairly short-circuited her candidacy to be secretary of State. Now, a similar campaign is being waged against former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who reportedly is President Obama's choice to be secretary of Defense. We aren't ready to pronounce Hagel qualified for the position. But once again, just as with Rice, the comments being seized on by his opponents are not sufficient to disqualify him from consideration. There are essentially three counts in the indictment: that he is too eager to reduce Pentagon spending; that as a senator he opposed sanctions against Iran at a time when that country was meddling in Iraq; and that he is hostile to Israel.

I don't want to bully the Dodgers into making a mistake; they've proved to be more than capable of doing so on their own. But Cliff Lee? He's available, and the Dodgers want to win NOW! Isn't this like Penn State running back Silas Redd suddenly becoming available to fill a need, thereby enhancing USC's chances of winning a college football championship? How do the win-now Dodgers pass on a chance to land Lee, given the state of the standings and their starting rotation?

Republican Party leaders on Friday quashed an effort to impose a political litmus test on its candidates, sidestepping a fight that threatened to divide the GOP and highlighted a split between purists and pragmatists over how best to steer the party in 2010 and beyond. The swift resolution of the matter -- when the chief sponsor abruptly withdrew his proposal in favor of a vague substitute -- provided an anticlimactic finish to a debate that roiled GOP insiders for weeks ahead of the party's winter meeting in Hawaii.

I don't want to bully the Dodgers into making a mistake; they've proved to be more than capable of doing so on their own. But Cliff Lee? He's available, and the Dodgers want to win NOW! Isn't this like Penn State running back Silas Redd suddenly becoming available to fill a need, thereby enhancing USC's chances of winning a college football championship? How do the win-now Dodgers pass on a chance to land Lee, given the state of the standings and their starting rotation?

Mayor Richard Riordan's nominees to city commissions, including routine reappointees, are being quizzed on their views of affirmative action by some members of the Los Angeles City Council. The council is within its rights when it determines whether a nominee is qualified and willing to enforce city policy, including affirmative action, but asking how he or she would vote on a proposed anti-affirmative action state initiative is going too far.

Here's a litmus test for candidates: Are you more inclined to use the power of government to try to prevent people from suffering harm, or to provide remedies for those who do? I pose this in the context of a bill President Obama signed Thursday -- HR 3606 , the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act -- to lift some of the regulatory barriers new businesses face when fundraising. The measure drew flak mainly from Senate Democrats, who argued that it would make the public more vulnerable to securities scams.  Opponents seemed particularly concerned about two provisions.

Re "Abortion Is the True Test of Conservatism," Column Right, Jan. 28: Now it can be told: I am the mysterious individual to whom David Klinghoffer refers only as "the PACman." I am the founder and chairman of the Young Jewish Leadership PAC. Our objective is to provide a vehicle for conservative Jews to become more active in Republican politics. I called Klinghoffer, a staff member at National Review magazine, to ask his help in obtaining coverage for our group. I was quite surprised to learn that, without ever advising me of his intention to publish (much less distort)

So much has changed in the Soviet Union since Mikhail S. Gorbachev electrified his country's creative and intellectual elite three years ago with his policy of glasnost . At first the shift was startling: Characteristic Soviet defensiveness and secrecy were abandoned as article after article in newspapers and magazines exposed the shortcomings of Soviet society--past and present.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is among the country's most high-profile advocates for gay marriage, even officiating a few himself. But now he's also become one of the most stalwart supporters of Chick-fil-A. Or, rather, of its free speech rights. Bloomberg has said that he'd never heard of the chain before the controversy over Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy's support for the “ biblical definition of the family unit. ” But as protesters take to the chicken restaurants Friday to protest, with same-sex “kiss-ins” planned across the country, Bloomberg again defended Chick-fil-A's right to believe whatever it wants.

Here's a litmus test for candidates: Are you more inclined to use the power of government to try to prevent people from suffering harm, or to provide remedies for those who do? I pose this in the context of a bill President Obama signed Thursday -- HR 3606 , the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act -- to lift some of the regulatory barriers new businesses face when fundraising. The measure drew flak mainly from Senate Democrats, who argued that it would make the public more vulnerable to securities scams.  Opponents seemed particularly concerned about two provisions.

"Tea party" sentiment is pulling the Republican presidential contest to the right as would-be candidates appeal for support from the GOP's conservative base. Tea party litmus tests were dominant 2012 themes as most of the presidential contenders addressed the nation's largest annual conservative conference, which ended Saturday. Competing for straw-poll votes from thousands of activists ? who gave libertarian Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) first place ? the potential candidates sought to outdo one another in expressing their disgust with a bloated government in Washington.

Tired of the rising frequency of public disputes between programming networks and local cable operators and satellite broadcasters that leave consumers in the lurch, the FCC said it would propose new rules that would give it more clout to play referee. Over the last year, there have been several high-profile spats between big media companies over fees charged for programming. In one notable instance, News Corp.'s Fox pulled the signal of its New York City TV station from Cablevision Systems Corp.

Republicans running for their party's nomination for California governor and the U.S. Senate brawled over conservative purity Saturday as they vied to inspire the party's wary rank and file. A national climate that portends trouble for Democrats lent a hopeful mood to a weekend convention of nearly 1,000 Republicans at a Silicon Valley hotel. Candidates took turns pummeling Democrats Jerry Brown, who hopes to recapture the governorship that he first won in 1974, and Barbara Boxer, the perennially vulnerable U.S. senator whom Republicans have failed three times to defeat.

It wasn't long ago that Marco Rubio and Tim Pawlenty -- two rising Republican stars -- supported legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions. But in recent weeks, both have begun to express doubts about whether cars, factories and power plants have anything to do with global warming. The shift by Rubio and Pawlenty -- as well as other prominent Republicans -- reflects the rising power of climate change skeptics in the GOP, where global warming is becoming a litmus test for conservatives.

President Reagan declared the Berlin Wall "a litmus test of East-West relations" today as he held a farewell meeting with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Reagan, who will leave office Jan. 20, said, "The divided city of Berlin remains a powerful symbol of a divided Europe and a litmus test of East-West relations."

Two key antiabortion Republicans said Monday they are against the call for an abortion "litmus test" for GOP candidates, even as a Republican governor announced his support. Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), a longtime leader of antiabortion forces in Congress, and Rep. Charles T. Canady (R-Fla.

A real case of deja vu Re "Conservatives criticize activist after his arrest," Jan. 28 I find it troubling that three of the four Republican activists arrested for illegally entering the office of a U.S. senator in New Orleans ran conservative newspapers at their respective colleges. None of these young men was a lone wolf with a grudge. None was an anonymous Average Joe plotting a crime. These presumably were the cream of the young Republicans, the best their party has to offer for the future.